The researchers aren't sure exactly how atropine affects myopia, but they hypothesize that the medication may stimulate the release of dopamine in the eye. Clinical trials are currently looking at the effectiveness and safety of atropine drops for children. Research is ongoing but it appears that low-dose drops may help slow the progression of myopia in kids.
Orthokeratology is a nonsurgical option for treating myopia. Also known as Ortho-k or corneal refractive therapy CRT , it consists of wearing rigid contact lenses designed to gradually flatten the curvature of the cornea. As a result, the eye changes how it focuses light. During the day, the contacts are removed, and vision may be temporarily clear. People with myopia due to visual stress can also use vision therapy, reports the AOA.
Through various eye exercises, a poor ability to focus can be improved, and clearer distance vision regained. The AOA notes that children who are at high risk of progressive myopia due to family history, early age of onset, and long periods of close-up work may be able to slow the progression with bifocal glasses or contact lenses, orthokeratology, eye drops, or a combination of these. Results of a clinical trial funded by the National Eye Institute and published in August in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that myopia progression was slower in children who wore multifocal contact lenses.
Clinicians in Taiwan have identified spending time outdoors as a preventive measure for myopia in children, according to research in Ophthalmology , the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. You can maintain your eye health by avoiding or limiting activities that lead to eye strain, such as time spent on digital devices. Possible complications include:. A widening body of research indicates that myopia is becoming increasingly prevalent in the United States and around the world, according to the National Eye Institute.
In the coming decades, the upward trend is projected to continue. According to the AOA, the number of children with myopia is increasing: One-quarter of parents have a nearsighted child, and about 75 percent of nearsighted children got diagnosed between ages 3 and Black Americans represent 7 percent of U.
Hispanic Americans represent 8 percent of U. In , the latest year for which CDC data is available, both Black and Hispanic Americans were about 35 percent likely to have had an eye exam, compared with 44 percent of Asian Americans and 47 percent of the white, non-Hispanic population. The progression of myopia appears to be a specific concern for people of East or Southeast Asian descent. A study published in November in the journal Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science looked at data from 11, children with myopia and found that of the following groups — white, Black, Hispanic, South Asian, East or Southeast Asian, Other Asian, and other or unknown — Asian American children were at significantly higher risk for progression of myopia than any other group.
Depending on the severity, high myopia can be corrected with eyeglasses or contact lenses, and in some cases, surgery. It may raise the risk for cataracts, detached retinas, and glaucoma later in life, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Favorite Orgs for Essential Myopia Info National Eye Institute NEI The NEI gives readers detailed background information on myopia, from risk factors to prevention including a description of what exactly goes wrong in eye development to cause the condition.
Presbyopia can affect everyone, no matter the current condition of your eyesight, but it is easily managed through wearing glasses for presbyopia.
You might experience signs like blurred vision or poor vision in low lit conditions. Do you often have to hold things at a distance to see them better? Do you suffer from headaches or eye strain that make reading, or other close-up activities, less comfortable?
This could indicate symptoms of presbyopia. It is a separate eye condition to myopia and you can have both. However, if you have myopia and begin to develop presbyopia, you might not notice it straight away. Myopia means the image of an object forms in front of the retina, the part of the eye responsible for seeing light and objects, but in presbyopia, the image is formed behind the retina. Both issues can compensate, and you might temporarily feel as though your vision is actually improving, but this is just part of the process and you will still need glasses to retain sharp, comfortable vision at near and far distances.
The best way to know for sure is to visit your local optician. Both presbyopia and myopia can be identified easily during a routine eye examination. Individuals who spend considerable time reading, working at a computer, or doing other intense close visual work may be more likely to develop myopia.
People with myopia can have difficulty clearly seeing a movie or TV screen, a whiteboard in school or while driving. Generally, myopia first occurs in school-age children. Because the eye continues to grow during childhood, it typically progresses until about age However, myopia may also develop in adults due to visual stress or health conditions such as diabetes.
Testing for myopia may use several procedures to measure how the eyes focus light and to determine the power of any optical lenses needed to correct the reduced vision. As part of the testing, you will identify letters on a distance chart. The top number of the fraction is the standard distance at which testing is performed 20 feet.
The bottom number is the smallest letter size read. Using an instrument called a phoropter, a doctor of optometry places a series of lenses in front of your eyes and measures how they focus light using a handheld lighted instrument called a retinoscope.
Or the doctor may choose to use an automated instrument that evaluates the focusing power of the eye. The power is then refined based on your responses to determine the lenses that allow the clearest vision. Your doctor can conduct this testing without using eye drops to determine how the eyes respond under normal seeing conditions. In some cases, such as for patients who can't respond verbally or when some of the eye's focusing power may be hidden, a doctor may use eye drops.
The eye drops temporarily keep the eyes from changing focus during testing. Using the information from these tests, along with the results of other tests of eye focusing and eye teaming, your doctor can determine if you have myopia. He or she will also determine the power of any lens correction needed to provide a clearer vision. Once testing is complete, your doctor can discuss treatment options.
People with myopia have a variety of options to correct vision problems. A doctor of optometry will help select the treatment that best meets the visual and lifestyle needs of the patient.
Children who are at high risk of progressive myopia family history, early age of onset, and extended periods of near work may benefit from treatment options that have been shown to reduce the progression of myopia.
These treatments include the prescription of bifocal spectacle or contact lenses, orthokeratology, eye drops, or a combination of these. Because persons with high myopia are at a greater risk of developing cataracts , glaucoma and myopic macular degeneration, myopia management may help preserve eye health.
A child with nearsightedness may:. If your difficulty clearly seeing things that are far away distance blur is pronounced enough that you can't perform a task as well as you wish, or if the quality of your vision detracts from your enjoyment of activities, see an eye doctor. He or she can determine the degree of your nearsightedness and advise you of your options to correct your vision. These are warnings signs of retinal detachment, which is a rare complication of myopia. Retinal detachment is a medical emergency, and time is critical.
Since it may not always be readily apparent that you're having trouble with your vision, the American Academy of Ophthalmology recommends the following intervals for regular eye exams:. If you're at high risk of certain eye diseases, such as glaucoma, get a dilated eye exam every one to two years, starting at age If you don't wear glasses or contacts, have no symptoms of eye trouble, and are at a low risk of developing eye diseases, such as glaucoma, get an eye exam at the following intervals:.
If you wear glasses or contacts or you have a health condition that affects your eyes, such as diabetes, you'll likely need to have your eyes checked regularly. Ask your eye doctor how frequently you need to schedule your appointments. But, if you notice any problems with your vision, schedule an appointment with your eye doctor as soon as possible, even if you've recently had an eye exam.
Blurred vision, for example, may suggest you need a prescription change, or it could be a sign of another problem. Children need to be screened for eye disease and have their vision tested by a pediatrician, an ophthalmologist, an optometrist or another trained screener at the following ages and intervals. Your eye is a complex and compact structure measuring about 1 inch 2. It receives millions of pieces of information about the outside world, which are quickly processed by your brain.
In a normally shaped eye, each of these focusing elements has a perfectly smooth curvature, like the surface of a marble. A cornea and lens with such curvature bend refract all incoming light to make a sharply focused image directly on the retina, at the back of your eye. If your cornea or lens isn't evenly and smoothly curved, light rays aren't refracted properly, and you have a refractive error. Nearsightedness usually occurs when your eyeball is longer than normal or your cornea is curved too steeply.
Instead of being focused precisely on your retina, light is focused in front of your retina, resulting in a blurry appearance for distant objects. Mayo Clinic does not endorse companies or products.
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